McGraw-Hill Companies: Shareholder Activists Seek Break-up

Posted by Joachim Bartels | Aug 6, 2011 | B2B Media, Business Information, McGraw-Hill, Member, Member News, Rating Services | 0 |

Activist investors from hedge fund Jana and the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund (“Teachers”) have bought 5.2% of McGraw-Hill Corporation with the avowed intent of forcing the division of the company into a financial services company and an educational/B2B company.

The activist investors believe that the sum of the parts could be as high as US$17.7bn, while the current market value of McGraw-Hill is US$13.3bn. The news prompted a 7.3% jump in McGraw-Hill’s shares.

McGraw-Hill has not been idle and had begun a comprehensive portfolio review some time ago. In its second quarter analyst call Harold ‘Terry’ McGraw-Hill said ‘everything was under review and that one should expect a number of significant actions in the second half of this year’. To read David Worlock’s assessment click on the link below.

Source: Financial Times and David Worlock

About The Author

Joachim Bartels

Joachim C Bartels is a co-founder, director, head of information resources and Editor-in-Chief of BIIA. In his capacity as Editor-in-Chief he is responsible for the selection of relevant information content concerning industry insights, trends, technological developments, standards and policies impacting BIIA members in particular and the business information industry in general.

The BIIA library is approaching 10,000 news items and best demonstrated practices. BIIA members receive regular news alerts on key developments in the industry and the regulatory environment. The BIIA readership is widespread: between 4 to 5 thousand unique visitors access BIIA.com per month.